Powerpac Rice Cooker with Stainless Steel Inner Pot

Recently we bought this PowerPac rice cooker with stainless steel inner pot .

As you can see from the pictures above, this PowerPac rice cooker  has a capacity of 1.0 litre.  It can cook up to 5 cups of rice and comes with food steamer.  It also comes with a rice paddle and a measuring cup.

According to their instruction manual, we have to wash the inner pot and pour water up to the level 5 mark and press the selector button downwards to cook. After the water is boiled, switch off the rice cooker.  When the water has cooled, pour it away and the rice cooker is ready to cook rice.  This step helps to get rid of any weird metal smell and also sterilizes the inner pot. 

Cook rice as you normally would for a rice cooker. 

If there's still some rice stuck to the inner pot after scraping off any extra, add some water into the inner pot and let it soak overnight.  It can be easily washed off using detergent and a non-abrasive sponge the next day.  Alternatively, you can follow the manual's instruction to add some warm soapy water for about 20 minutes and then wash with a non-abrasive sponge. 

This is a more affordable option of rice cooker with a stainless steel inner pot.  We only use the rice cooker to cook only rice, so we do not need a lot of other fanciful function.  We just needed a simple rice cooker.  This PowerPac rice cooker with stainless steel inner pot served the purpose.

[S$39.90](▼21%)[Powerpac]PowerPac Rice Cooker 1.0L with Stainless Steel Inner Pot Food Steamer (PPRC31)

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Tefal Electric Steamer VC1401

My stainless steel steamer pot started to leak water a few weeks ago. We were considering whether to buy a new 2-tier stainless steel steamer that could be used on the stove or an electric steamer. After comparing the prices, we thought we might as well get an electric steamer with timer. Coincidentally, NTUC Xtra was having a promotion on the Tefal Electric Steamer with a sale price of $59.90 (usual price was $69.90). There were other brands on offer but the Tefal electric steamer suited our needs.

Tefal Electric Steamer VC1401

Water tank

Juice collector to be placed above the water tank

The picture directly above was taken after steaming, hence there was water in the juice collector. There should not be any water there before steaming. Water can be poured into the water tank or the water-fill drawer up to the maximum level before steaming. If more water is needed during the steaming process, we could pour it in through the water-fill drawer 

Water-fill draw

After adding water to the water tank and placing the food to be cooked in the steamer, turn on the power and set the timer to the desired time. When the timer reaches 0, it will give a "ding" sound, similar to that of a toaster oven. The maximum time is 60 minutes.

Timer with water level indicator

For cooking times of less than 15 minutes, we were advised to turn the timer to 30 minutes first, and then turn it backwards to the required time. There was once when I used the steamer with a cooking time of about 10 minutes. I followed the instructions but did not hear any "ding" sound even after the 10 minutes was up. When I checked the food, it was already well cooked but the timer did not turn at all. At first, I thought the timer was spoilt. Keeping my fingers crossed, I tried to use the steamer on another day. This time round I turned the timer to more than 30 minutes then slowly turned it back to 10 minutes. The steamer completed the steam cycle with the "ding" sound. The timer was still functioning well! Yeah!

After that, Ardon used it on another day and the timer did not turn again. However, when I used it on yet another occasion by turning the timer slowly back to 10 minutes, it worked well. So, our conclusion was not to turn the timer back too fast to less than 15 minutes.

Lower basket

Orange light appears when timer was switched on

What we loved about this was that we need not keep a lookout on any flame as compared to a stove. Water could also be added to the steamer via the water-fill drawer conveniently in the middle of the steam cycle. 

Tefal Convenient Steamer VC1401 (1 Year Singapore Warranty/SG Ready Stock)

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Rapido 8-in-1 Blender

A few weeks ago, Ardon and I saw that Giant hypermart was having an offer on the Rapido 8-in-1 blender that was distributed by JML Singapore Pte Ltd. It was selling at a discounted price of $39.90. I think the original price was about twice this amount.  

The blender comes with many attachments as shown in the picture below.

It is an 8-in-1 blender that can blend, puree, whip, mix, grate, chop and grind. It can also be used as a juice extractor.  It also comes with an instruction and recipe guide. We thought it was a good deal to buy this blender at this price. 

I haven't fully tried out all the uses that were stated on the box. So far, I have ground 250 g of pork using the cross blade and tall cup. The pork was all minced up within a few seconds.

Last week, I wanted to make ice blended coffee (the weather was very hot!). First, I poured a satchet of 3-in-1 coffee into my usual drinking cup and poured a little bit of hot water, just enough to dissolve the 3-in-1 coffee powder. Then I put some ice in the tall cup and after closing it with the cross blade cover,  I placed it on the power base to crush some ice. Then I poured the crushed ice into the cup of coffee. As the coffee was hot, the ice melted almost immediately. So I didn't get the ice blended coffee effect that I wanted. There were still some crushed ice stuck around the blades and it was a bit difficult to get it out.  My cup of coffee was only half full with the melted ice in it. So, I poured the coffee into the tall cup and added more ice to it. Then I put the cross blade and closed it, placed the tall cup onto the power base and switched on. This time, I got the ice blended coffee effect that I wanted.

After I was done with this cup of ice blended coffee, Sera tasted it and liked it. So, it became her cup of coffee. So I made another ice blended coffee for myself. This time round, I poured my hot coffee which contained a little hot water into the tall cup, added lots of ice to it and started blending. The ice blended coffee texture turned out better than the first one :).

[S$59.90]Magic Nutri Bullet/Food Mixer Machine/Blender/ Best Juicer/Nutribullet/Singapore Ready Stock/Local Warranty

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